Sertraline Interview

1. What band's influence your music style?

Anything with a good mix of groovy, powerful, etherial; bands ranging from Tesseract and Monuments to Pendulm and those songs Will Smith did for the Men in Black films (Mike)

Periphery, Northlane, Architects, VOLA - really into all of the progressive metal at the moment! My influences are very diverse though, I'm not scared of pop music. PVRIS is one of my favourite bands, in love with Lynn Gunn's voice! Also I am a huge Ariana Grande fan, she's so effortless. (Lizzie)

Metallica, Pantera (Big shout out to Vinnie Paul in light of his recent passing) Soundgarden and Faith No More in the early days. My main influence as a bass player would have to be Jason Newstead. The guy could rule a stage and the energy he used to give off was raw and brutal. (Hendo)

Recent influences - Northlane, Tesseract, Monuments, Veil Of Maya, Periphery, Vola.
Older influences - Pantera, Protest The Hero, August Burns Red, In Flames. (Tom)

SikTh (Dan Ford), Tesseract (Jay Postones), Lamb Of God (Chris Adler) and Travis Orbin's work. They have each contributed massively to the foundation that I build my drumming style on. (Si)

2. If you could tour any countries what would they be?

We'd love to return to Italy, and Germany is an absolute must. I've heard heavy music has quite a decent following in India, so it'd be awesome to tour there! (Mike)

My dream would be to tour our neighbour over the seas, the USA. There's something about being in a tour bus, stopping at greasy diners, cruising on those long interstate freeways and tearing up venues that appeals to me! (Si)

I think we'd all love to tour the states, that is an absolute dream! Definitely want to return to mainland Europe soon too. (Lizzie)

3. You've supported the likes of Sumo Cyco, Forever Still and Skarlett Riot, what was that like for you and how did you get that opportunity?

It's always a huge buzz supporting established bands and they are really fun shows to play. We're all very social people too so one of the best things is meeting new people and having a laugh! Everyone we've met has been so lovely and we've made some great friends. We've been self managed for 3 years now so most of the shows have come from the contacts we've made along the way. (Lizzie)

4. Are you working on any new music at the moment?

YES! We're working on quite a bit of new material and we've got a hell of a lot in the vault waiting to be worked on. As a band we're mega productive;  every time we practice someone in the band has something new to play with. We've got a shiny new number that we took out to Europe with us and I'd say it's our heaviest and most technical stuff yet. You might catch it at one of our shows coming up soon! (Hendo)

5. What got you into playing the style of music that you play?

My background is classical but playing blues or messing around on a resonator is always fun. The raw power of heavy and precise melodic metal only seems to be getting more satisfying over time though, so I think we're all drawn to it in that way. (Mike)

My tastes have gradually gotten heavier. My parents had very different tastes. My dad had taste and my mum liked Westlife (Just kidding, Westlife and great). It progressed from The White Stripes; to the classic 2005 "Bullet For My Valentine" - esque era of bands; to a weird 80's hair metal spell that we don't talk about; to Protest The Hero and The Human Abstact (Which got me into technical metal), and it all factors in to the style of music I want to create. It's just a melting pot of sound and time. (Tom)

6. How long did you work on your EP 'Guilty' for?

The best part of a year! We started writing 'Nyeevise' and 'I Admit The Blame' during the symmer of 2015, but then we lost 2 band members so writing was stunted slightly! Once we'd recruited Tom, we were back on track and wrote the rest of the EP without a drummer. We got a guest drummer to record the EP with us in 2016, and then Si put his own spin on the tracks when we performed them live. It was tricky at times but it made us prouder of the EP when it was finished! (Lizzie)

7. Can you tell us what 'Guilty' is about?

Our EP 'Guilty' tells a story throughout the 5 tracks - it explores the emotions of guilt, betrayal and loss; but also has some positivity and hints of staying strong throughout the bad times. I don't like to give too many specifics away because I love the idea of listeners interpreting the tracks in their own way! (Lizzie)

8. Why did you choose to go down the music path?

I've never told anyone this story before as it's pretty embarrassing. There's a scene in the 2003 movie "Freaky Friday" where Lindsay Lohan pulls off this sick solo at a wedding. I was 12, naive and when I saw this it blew my tiny mind. I wanted to play that solo so badly. And that genuinely is something that pushed me to play guitar and perform live. Thanks Lindsay. (Tom)

9. What song are you most proud of?

All Choked Up will always be an old highlight for me. It strikes me as an emotional climax (Lol) when we finished a set with it! It seems to sit well even with our newest and most complex material. (Mike)

It'd have to be Mean To Me. It's full of energy and raw as hell! (Hendo)

I'm really proud of Snakes. When Mike and I were riffing with the tune, we were really excited about what we were playing, but at rehearsals we were unsure how we'd pull most of it off. I'd say it really only fully came together on the day of recording. Listening to the rough demo of the whole EP was an amazing feeling, but that song in particular due to the difficulties we had piecing it together. (Tom)

All Choked Up. As I didn't join the band until after the latest EP had been recorded, I had the opportunity to adapt the material, I have adapted it in a way that fits the band's style whilst still retaining the original qualities of the older recordings (Si)

I Admit The Blame. It's totes emosh and I feel really de-stressed after performing it live! (Lizzie)

10. To end it off, what's your favourite Disney movie?

Don't make me choose between Mary Poppins and The Emperor's New Groove... (Troon: Legacy is amazing too, I don't care who denies it). (Mike)

No doubt, Mary Poppins! Straight up! (Hendo)

Mulan. (Tom)

Lion King, easy. To be honest that should be everyone's favourite Disney Movie because it is THAT good. (Si)

Hercules. (Lizzie)